1. Field of the Invention
The use of food processors as kitchen appliances has grown rapidly in recent years. While the design of these food processors differ to some extent from model to model, all of these kitchen type units have essentially the same basic parts; a base which houses a motor to drive the rotating blade and disks, a bowl that fits onto the base and contains the processed food, a pusher to feed food through a feed tube situated on the lid of the bowl and a plurality of elements which engage the food, e.g. for slicing, grating, chopping, blending, and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, because of the manner of fabrication of the device, such processors have not practically permitted the slicing or processing of a single food item. In other words, unless the amount of food to be processed was introduced in amounts which substantially filled the cross section of and was neatly stacked in the feed tube so that the pusher forced all the food against the work element simultaneously, the processing of the food item would be uneven, i.e. cut on a bias. Moreover, because of the haphazard manner in which the food item lay in the feed tube when loosely stacked, the processed product obtained would be unsightly.
Attempts have been made to provide a device to hold the food item while it is being sliced and while at least one device is known which attempts to hold a single item while it is being sliced, this device is unsatisfactory in that it cannot be used with various foods, e.g. celery stalks, and is in any case, inadequate in holding power and control. Another arrangement to hold food items in place in the feed tube employs an array of converging spring leaves that are separated and hold an item in place when the item is pressed into the feed tube between the spring leaves. This arrangement is regarded as unsatisfactory because of the hindrance presented when the full cross section of the feed tube is used and for sanitary reasons.
It is thus apparent that a need exists for an improved device for use in conjunction with a food processor which permits an individual food item such as a celery stalk, carrot, cucumber, pepperoni stick and the like, to be held and neatly sliced or otherwise efficiently processed without the food item becoming prematurely dislodged from the holder.